Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.

Al-Monitor – In recent months, Iran’s powerful judiciary has found itself under pressure from an usual source — conservatives. In addition to former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his aides, who kicked off a campaign against the judicial system in August, a small but influential university student group also now has the judiciary in its crosshairs. One member of the Justice-Seeker …

AL-Monitor – In his first extensive comments on the recent protests in Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Jan. 9 pointed the finger at the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia, saying they planned the unrest. On Dec. 28, people in the northeastern city of Mashhad took to the streets to express their anger at the government for failing …

PayvandNews – Nearly 96 percent of Iran’s total area is suffering from different levels of prolonged drought, the director for drought and crisis management department of Iran’s Meteorological Organization said. Referring to Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) over the past 84 months, Shahrokh Fateh said drought severities range from abnormally dry to moderate, severe and even extreme drought. SPEI is designed to …

lobelog – According to reports by the Committee on the Rights of the Detained, a 22 year old held in the quarantine ward of Evin prison in Tehran died in detention. The committee, set up by human rights activists and former political prisoners, aims to track the situation of those detained in the recent protests in Iran, explained that prisoners …

RFL/RE – An Iranian lawmaker says that about 3,700 people have been arrested during antigovernment protests, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is claiming that Tehran foiled what he called attempts by the United States and Britain to create unrest. The number of arrests cited by reformist lawmaker Mahmud Sadeghi on January 9 is far higher than figures announced by …